1970’s
Films
Throughout these decades we can quite quickly and clearly see a huge boost in the film industry, creating more Hollywood actors and actresses, many who still chose to appear in movies and the pubic eye to this day. There was also huge advances in technology and how films were produced, recorded and standardised. Sex became a selling point for movies and that has carried through to today’s films, having a scandalous looking women on the cover or having anything sexual hinted in the description can pull in more audiences than if it was suited more for a PG audience. The same also goes for males in films and how they appear and how girls act and admire them, giving the impression to younger audiences this is right and how they should react when seeing a attractive male or female.
A prime example of a promiscuous film is “M*A*S*H”. Directed by Robert Altman and released on January 25th 1970, this film is based in 1951 where two new surgeons arrive at a surgical hospital in South Korea. They are insubordinate, womanising, mischevious rule breakers, but quite excellent combat surgeons. As you can see the theme of war and lust has now started to make a little bit more of an appearance, setting a bold new example on the new age of films.
Games
The 1970’s was where the game industry really started to kick off. Games such as Pong, Astroids and Space Invaders boosted the industry and allowed the arcades and consoles to spread around the world and influence random strangers with worlds they only saw in movies it could dream of. Although each one of the games which was produced and circulated in 1970s were very simplistic and basic, it added a new category to the media industry. Children from all over America could be found hiding away, slotting coins over and over again just to beat someone’s high score and being able to have a get away from home life and anything that troubles them. The most famous game from this era is ‘Pong’ simply because it was one of the first games to be produced. Pong was produced by Atari and was designed for a training exercise by Allan Alcorn for his co-worker Nolan Bushnell. The game was first released in 1972 and ended up grossing 150,000 which in today’s standards for not sound a lot, however back then, the idea of games being inside a home and being able to have that experience in the comfort of your living room was an extremely new idea and baffled many. Yet here we are today, with small games grossing millions worldwide and nearly every home has a console or system of some sort.
Fashion
During the 1970s, we saw a huge uproar of different styles and ways of expressing yourself. The 1970’s held witness to the punk and hippy era. A clashing era of rebellion and peace, where just about every one had a unique place in society. A strange yet interesting and diverse time period which was defined by icons and styles which can still be found influential and popular in today’s society. Icons such as X-RAY SPEX, a punk rock band who formed in London in 1976, which was the embodiment of the middle finger to the people attitude, especially in the opening of their hit song ‘Oh, bondage up yours!’. Jacqueline Bisset is an English actress who started her career in 1965 yet gained popularity during the 1970s with her hit films ‘The Deep’ and ‘Day for Night’. She was also a fashion icon who preferred the simpler outfits and was well known for popularising flares and bell-sleeved shirts. Even though there doesn’t seem to be a particular punk fashion icon, a lot of people like to refer to Souixsie and The Banshees as one of the most known punk band and how their styles influenced the children around England, in particular London.
1980’s
Films
Another catagory that hit the late 1900’s, 1980 in particular was horror, quite a few of these films were released through out this decade. An example of this would be “Friday the 13th”. Released may 9th 1980 and produced by Sean S.Cunningham. The film tells the story of a group of teenage camp counselors who are murdered one by one by an unknown killer while attempting to re-open an abandoned summer camp. This film is one of my all time favourites because as the story proceeds you learn more about both the backstory of the killer and the grounds he seems so intent to protect. This is a classic slasher film that follows a guy named Jason who seems to be more of a monster than a man. In the next decade 8 films were released and although they didn’t follow a war theme, the theme of sex as not been lost. It just so happens that the killer believes he’s punishing those who are doing such things.
Games
This was the the start of the famous game crash of 1983. However, it was also the decade in which influential games such as PAC-Man, MegaMan and Contra. Each game was produced with more than just simple game mechanics in mind. Each game also had individual genres which went on to define games decades later and have deep seated roots for some time to come. They also explored the abilities of games systems and by pushing them to their max, the developers were able to change the face of gaming and allow the industry to become more creative and free. The crash of 1983, known in Japan as ‘ The Atari Shock’, came to effect due to several factors. Some of the factors being the ratio of game consoles to available games to play, the waning interest in video games and games consoles due to the expense of them and the majority of the public being in favour of a personal computer. Where once the games industry grossed $3.2 billion in 1983, shortly after the market dropped to a shallow $100 million, a huge drop of 97% in 1985. The crash has serious consequences, causing hundred and thousands of home computers and game consoles to become bankrupt and close down. However, only a few years later the North American video game console industry managed to pull them up from the rut due to the widespread success of the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985.
Fashion
This era was defined by expensive clothing and accessories which included a lot of vivid colours to allow you to stand out from the crowd and catch the attention of those who are not so eccentric. At the time, mullets, spandex and neon leg warmers were seen to be the ‘hip new thing to wear’ and as it happens, today we look back on how people use to dress and cringe about how badly those small and non important things defined the entire decade. Big hair, expensive jewellery such as pearls and diamond and bright neon colours could be found everywhere you go. The 80’s also had a huge rave and nightclub scene which reached America and England alike and both nations tended to have very similar styles and even tv shows at the time. As some might have noticed, this style is slowly making a reappearance within the fashion community due to how nostalgic and iconic the aesthetic is.
1990’s
Films
Finally in the 1990’s, the theme of all the films in general didn’t change much, in-fact more movies were pumped as each of these category’s were a basic need in most movies now however, they started to dive in to unknown territory as time went on.
Movies such as “child’s play 2, 3 and bride of chucky” were all released within the 1990’s keeping a horror a gore theme. Granted the first theme was out in the late 1980’s however the saga of the films carry on to this day. Back then it showed something new, rituals and stepped in to the real of supernatural which in turn kept making viewers wanting to know more of this soon to be rising topic with in horror films.
upon further inspection I saw a pattern in the horror community and that was it seems to be going off human fears, the previous film spoken about shows Pediophobia, which is the unwarranted, irrational and persistent fear or worry of dolls.
This continues with movies such as arachnophobia which was made in 1990 and is pretty self explanatory as the “illness” is the film title. arachnophobia is the unreasonable fear of spiders and other arachnids such as scorpions. “IT” was another film made in 1990 showcasing peoples fear of clowns (coulrophobia).
It seems that films from the 1990s took a slight turn and started to develop ideas not yet full explored, in to what actually frightens humans, such as the illnesses that aren’t classed as metal illnesses and the fear of the unknown, which is xenophobia.
Games
Around the start of the 1990s was when the game industry started to boom once again. The technology was more advanced allowing for more visually stunning and complex characters and backgrounds and games finally having a solid storyline. This also meant the majority of games had better mechanics and was more accessible to the public, therefore, turning the game industry into an every day used form of media. Arcades still had their place in the 90s and even today they can be found with much excitement, holding memories of years passed. Transitioning from 8bit to 64bit was a huge leap for the industry and now the developers are making strides into turning a gaming experience into something that feels and looks realistic. There are a lot of iconic games from this era, even those born a decade later will still have played and experienced those games. The games I am talking about is obviously, Super Mario. A game that still have instalments released every year and continues to amaze and make its audience fall in love with the game. The 1990s also held view to many other games which still have their rightful place in today’s gaming world, games such as Dragon Quest, Fire Emblem, Metal Gear Solid and even Final Fantasy. This decade we ditched the Commodore 64 and picked up GameBoys and NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) to start to live through fantasy type lands that could not have been created without that huge leap in technology.
Fashion
The fashion in the 1990s primarily consisted of denim jeans and jackets, turtle necks, flannel and low heel boots. This eras fashion mainly focused on comfort and practicality as there were no flashy colours, no rebellious DIYed clothing and nothing to make you stand out either. As you can see from the image above, the fashion could be worn by both Male and female and would be suitable for any situation, work or otherwise. There isn’t much to document about this eras fashion choices, the clothing was very simplistic and did not break boundaries in any sense like the 80s and 70s did. It is almost as a collective society we all just wished to live a peaceful life for awhile and have things become more subdued. As much as you hear this generation saying how the want the old aesthetics back and saying they should have been born in those generations, they often confuse the 90s with the 80s. Even though the can over lap during the later years of the 80s and beginning of the 90s, there can always be a clear line found between the two which set them apart from each other.
Primary research on favorite games.
For this, my task was to create a post or go on social media and ask people what their favorite games were and why. This type of research will become very helpful in the future as I will not be relying on writing informations, but peoples knowledge and opinions. There are a few positives and negatives to researching this way and a few of each will be listed below.
Positives are as follow;
– A range of opinions
– Quick and fast responses
– Reply at anytime of the day
– Online groups
– Able to reach different types of people
Negatives are as follows;
– Not taken seriously
– Unreliable timed response
– Repeated answers
– Depending on how many people you have on social media depends on how many answers
– People might not want to comment
I personally haven’t got that many people on social media but I was lucky to get a few responses that will be show below. One of the responses was through messenger as he did not like replying on Facebook posts. He saw an opportunity to help me but did not want to make himself public which is a downside to researching like this.
Powerpoint on the last 10 years.
As a group of three, our task was to create a powerpoint on films, technology, fashion and culture through-out the past ten years. This assignment was split in to three sections; technology and games, culture and visuals and finally, fashion.
The person tasked with researching the fashion industry was to create the presentation, putting the information together. With the outcome of the final result, after leaving it to my class mate, I decided to redo the presentation not out of spite, but because I was not please with the result.
Below is the presentation that was created by one of my classmates. The file is linked but I decided to put each slide in a slide show for you to see without hassle.
The reasons I decided to redo this presentation to post on my blog is because in the presentation above, there is barely anything. there is very little information and full of visuals. Granted this presentation would be okay when presenting it as the information would be in your head making it easier to keep eye contact with the viewers. However, outside of a presentation, for those looking for inspiration or help, or maybe to even look back at the work myself, it is going to make no sense to me. There is no information guiding me leading me to assume or redo my research.
The next presentation linked below is the re created one. This one I am proud of as the information was looked up, assessed and finally added to the presentation, allowing both me and viewers to read it and understand in our own way.
Now in creating this new powerpoint I am grateful for a few things that gave me an idea on how to create this presentation from the first presentation but most of all, the visuals. I am grateful for these because they are linked to the topics we were doing together. I didn’t have to change any of the visuals which saved me time creating the presentation overall.
Kareems blog 